Zurich or Geneva
 

We are flying from San Francisco. Which city do you prefer to fly into, Zurich or Geneva. <BR>This is our first trip to Switzerland. We will continue to Florence and the Riviera.

I flew in and out of Zurich last year and will fly home from Zurich this year. <BR>I don't think you will have much luck with Geneva. I found last year that to get the best airfares I had to fly the Zurich route. Geneva was actually an add on. <BR> <BR>Have you compared prices?? <BR>Anyhow, the Zurich airport has a train station right there in it and intercity trains actually originate there. The major car rental agencies also have convenient counters. We trained "out" and drove "in". Both worked, but finding your way by car around Kloten without a map is a challenge. <BR> <BR>

We flew in and out of Zurich last October, nice airport with a rail station right there. It is a 10 minute train ride to the main station in Zurich. If you're planning on traveling by train, Zurich would be my choice.

I was in geneve last fall and it's just a business city. If you want a romantic city i suggest Lausanne or Montreux that's where im going when i go back to suisse, but if you want a city go to zurich, it's very pretty there too and im sure there's much more to do there than in geneve.

It depends in part on your ground arrangements, and whether your departure city is your arrival city. Assuming you are driving, you need to decide if you are going to Florence or the Rivera first. From Zurich,you can drive south through Milan and down to Florence, then back up to Genoa and over the border into France and the Riviera. You could drop your car at Nice, and fly from there to some European hub airport, and then home. Or drive up to Geneva, and leave the car there and fly home, sort of. Remember that inEurope, forthe most part, there's an airportt hub system, and often you can't get there from here. Depending on the airline, good hub cities for you might be Zurich, Frankfurt, or even Paris. From Paris you can fly straight to Nice, saving a lot of mountain driving.However, the mountain driving may be part of the reason you want totake the trip. <BR> <BR>If you want to go to the Riviera first, and time is tight, fly to Geneva and then drive south from there. It will save you two days driving through Switzerland from Zurich to Geneva. On the other hand, you'll miss the joys of two days of driving through Switzerland. <BR> <BR>It's been a long time since I was in eithr city, but Zurich is much more intresting, if you want to spend time in the city itself. <BR> <BR>The drive from Geneva south to Grasse along the small highways is wonderful. make sure you set aside two days for this. I did it in one, and regret not being able to stop and enjoy the scenery and the history. <BR> <BR>If it was my trip, I'd fly SF to Paris, paris toNice, rent a car, drive along the coast into Italy and down to Florence, then travel north inland up to Turin, turn left and go into France again, and either return the car to Nice or drive north to Paris, via Geneva. Drop off fees for rental cars may play a part in your decision <BR> <BR>BAK